Why Should Founders Track Cash Runway?

Aydin Senkut says founders should track cash runway, because a clock is ticking and a good-or-bad label only gets people stuck. His firm watches cash runway so a hard decision can happen early enough to change the company's trajectory, before the company is in the 11th hour.

Data is hard to argue with. A founder might say the team is hiring so many people and things are going great, while burn sits in the bottom quartile and the rate of deals closing sits in the top decile. A higher burn can then be reasonable because the pipeline looks like it is ramping even faster. Every founder is getting some great things right, and every company still has something wavering.

Constructive feedback always plays out in a good way. A founder might not appreciate it in the moment, but later the founder can see the data was correct. He wants founders to feel real care beyond a check, by seeing the right problem while time remains. There are many instances of a lone voice on a board while other people say everything is good. Nine months pass, and then only three months of cash are left.